Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/229

Rh had shown not only for the social, artistical and political improvement of the nation committed to his charge, but for the honest collection of the royal income, which, in those days, was a matter of no small moment or interest to the Spanish kings. But in 1680, the viceroy's health began to fail, and Charles the Second, who still desired to preserve and secure the invaluable services of so excellent a personage to his country, nominated him bishop of Cuenca, and created him president of the Council of the Indies.

The archbishop Rivera, when he left the viceroyal chair handed to his successor in 1680, on the 30th of November, the letter he had just received from the north, imparting the sad news of a general rising of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. The aborigines of that region, who then amounted to about twenty-five thousand, residing in twenty-four villages, had entered into combination with the wilder tribes thronging the broad plains of the north and the recesses of the neighboring mountains, and had suddenly descended, in great force, upon the unfortunate Spaniards scattered through the country. The secret of the conspiracy was well kept until the final moment of rupture. The spirit of discontent, and the bond of Indian union were fostered and strengthened, silently, steadily and gradually, throughout a territory of one hundred and twenty-five leagues in extent, without the revelation of the fact to any of the foreigners in the region. Nor did the strangers dream of impending danger until the 10th of August, when, at the same moment, the various villages of Indians, took arms against the Spaniards, and, slaughtering all who were not under the immediate protection of garrisons, even wreaked their vengeance upon twenty-one Franciscan monks who had labored for the improvement of their social condition as well as for their conversion to Christianity.

Having successfully assaulted all the outposts of this remote government of New Spain, the Indians next directed their arms against the capital, Santa Fe, which was the seat of government and the residence of the wealthiest and most distinguished